The post-mortem on the Gaza war
continues. Some Israelis regard it as a failure because it
has strengthened the position of Hamas in Gaza and arms
smuggling continues there (however Hamas did condemn a
recent rocket attack on Israel by an extreme faction). In
addition, world opinion has hardened against Israel because
some IDF soldiers have revealed shocking details of bad,
even criminal behaviour by Israeli forces. Israel claims the
IDF is the most moral army in the world and, doubtless there
are many IDF troops who behave morally and compassionately.
However there is another side to the story

A Palestinian woman and her
children mistakenly crossed a line they should not have done
and were shot dead. Similarly an elderly Palestinian woman
was shot dead on the orders of a company commander. Soldiers
were ordered to kill anyone left in houses after a warning
to leave, on the pretext that anyone who hadn’t fled was, in
effect, a terrorist. Yet, as some soldiers pointed out, the
people had nowhere to flee in the densely populated Gaza
Strip.

Soldiers wrote offensive
graffiti on the walls of Palestinian homes, e.g. “Death to
the Arabs.” They spat on family photos. They practised
pointless destruction. They soiled clothes found in
Palestinian homes with human faeces.

A pregnant Palestinian woman
with a bull’s eye superimposed on her stomach and the
slogan “1 shot, 2 kills.”

A picture of a dead
Palestinian baby beside a weeping mother with the slogan
“Better use Durex.”

“We won’t chill ‘til we
confirm the kill” which refers to the practice of
shooting a wounded enemy victim in the head, which the
IDF denies happens.

“Let every Arab mother know
that her sons’ fate is in my hands!”

An image of a child with the
slogan “Smaller – harder” (i.e. a small target is harder
to hit).

A soldier blowing up a
mosque with the slogan “Only God forgives.”

An IDF colonel said that this
sort of thing has gone on to his knowledge for 50 years. One
Israeli Counter-terrorism expert said: “These days the
content on shirts is sometimes deplorable. It stems from the
fact that profanity is very acceptable and normative in
Israel, and that there is a lack of respect for human beings
and their environment, which includes racism aimed in every
direction.” In response to these public revelations, the
IDF chief education officer has called on commanders to
eradicate such slogans.

Israel is also accused to
excessive use of force in Gaza. The IDF is known to use huge
fire power to protect its soldiers. Almost 5000 Palestinians
were killed in Gaza. One Israeli commentator claims that
half of them were innocent civilians and nearly 1000
children and teenagers. One cause may be that Israel gives
its troops a great deal of autonomy.

I need to point out that all
the above information is from Israeli sources.

There were also widespread
accusations that IDF soldiers shot at Palestinian and Red
Cross rescue workers with the result that some victims
suffered or died unnecessarily. There are criticisms that
Israel used white phosphorus shells illegally and that IDF
soldiers shot at civilians waving white flags.

Of course, war brings out the
worst in a minority of soldiers in any army. These evils are
not limited to the IDF. Also soldiers are often in mortal
danger and sometimes overreact. They are afraid of civilian
suicide bombers – and organisations like Hamas have to bear
great responsibility for that. We also need to remember that
Hamas and other Palestinian extremists deliberately target
innocent civilians, as we have frequently recorded, so they
have no credibility in cynically criticising Israel. However
none of this justifies the appalling behaviour which has
been made public in Israel. Those who are concerned for
Israel need to face up to and pray about the realities of
the situation and not rely upon whitewashed propaganda
accounts. The same can be said about those who are concerned
for the Palestinians. Paradox stands firmly for the view
that Christians should be concerned about and praying for
both sides.

NETANYAHU
AND THE PEACE PROCESS

Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu is now
established as Israel’s new right wing prime minister and
his foreign minister is Avigdor Lieberman who is an
ultra-nationalist accused of being racist towards Israeli
Arabs. Both seem to be trading on fear. Netanyahu is
emphasising the threat from Iran and Lieberman the alleged
threat from Israeli Arabs.

Netanyahu is seen as against a
two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and
he believes the Jewish settlements on the West Bank should
be allowed to expand naturally. He holds that Israel must
retain 50% of the West Bank in the Jordan Valley and Judean
Wilderness for security reasons (the previous government
said Israel should retain only 6.5% and compensate the
Palestinians with other land). Peace Now claims the Israeli
government plans to build 73,300 new houses in the West
Bank.

The prime minister said
recently: “We will carry out peace negotiations with the
Palestinian Authority with a view to reaching a final
accord. Under the final accord, the Palestinians will have
all the rights to govern themselves except those that can
put in danger the security and existence of the state of
Israel.” The Palestinians were not encouraged by this
statement.

Meanwhile the Arab states,
meeting in Qatar warned Israel that their peace initiative
will not remain on the table for much longer. Netanyahu
could well respond positively to the initiative, especially
as affording a united front against Iran and could keep the
discussions going ad nauseam. However Lieberman called the
initiative (with its call for a right of return for
Palestinian refugees) “a dangerous proposal, a recipe for
the destruction of Israel.”

At the same time, the idea of a
single bi-national state (as opposed to the two state
solution) is growing in popularity with some thinkers. This
is because they think a real Palestinian state is not viable
and they regard the present relationship between Israel and
Fatah as an acceptable stalemate. They also think Israel’s
new government won’t proceed towards a two-state solution
anyway.

THE OBAMA FACTOR

Netanyahu is due to meet
President Obama on May 17th and is expected to
press the American president to take action over Iran. Obama
is expected to urge Netanyahu to cease expanding the
settlements and to accept a two-state solution.

Obama is meeting Mahmoud Abbas
in Washington on May 28th and is planning to
visit Israel and the West Bank in June. He has promised to
continue giving Israel military assistance and is refusing
to talk with Hamas. However American sources have said
Obama does not oppose the inclusion of Hamas in a
Palestinian unity government, so long as the group stops the
violence, recognises Israel and accepts previous peace
agreements all of which is unlikely to be acceptable to
Hamas.

It maybe that Netanyahu’s
election does hold out some hope for Obama’s Middle East
policy. When he was prime minister from 1996-1999 Netanyahu
was so unpopular in America that Clinton managed to exclude
him from the White House with little reaction from the
Washington pro-Israel lobby. So, if Netanyahu proves still
to be unpopular, Obama may be able, without upsetting that
lobby, to apply very strong pressure or even sanctions to
the present Israeli government if they do not follow the two
state peace process.

It is hoped therefore that Obama
will move from “facilitation” of the peace process to active
intervention. This would mean presenting a peace plan with
international support and applying sanctions to both sides
if they obstructed its implementation.

The question is, though, whether
Netanyahu would yield to such pressure. Some Israelis
believe that he wouldn’t but that, as in the nineties, his
government would not last long, but would be replaced by a
centre-left government who would inherit the American plan.

Tony Blair has revealed that the
Quartet (UN, EU, Russia and the US) led by Obama is working
on a new peace plan. It is thought that this:

Is based on the Arab Peace
Initiative with some modifications to the requirement of
a right of return for Palestinian refugees (which is a
sticking point for Israel).

Involves simultaneous
bilateral talks between Israel and the Palestinians and
Israel and Syria (Netanyahu, Barak and Lieberman have
all spoken in favour of peace talks with the Syrians and
the Syrian President has said direct peace talks could
happen if the US mediates).

US military support for a
demilitarised West Bank with a multinational force
stationed there for some years.

Obama
apparently does not accept Netanyahu’s precondition for
renewing peace talks of the Palestinians recognising Israel
as the state of the Jewish people. Nor does he agree with
Netanyahu that the Iranian threat must be dealt with before
the peace process resumes.

THE
PALESTINIAN SITUATION

Gaza is still
devastated. A recent UN survey of 1200 young adult
Palestinians found that 80% were depressed and this was
worse in Gaza where the unemployment rate for that age group
is 51% as opposed to 35% on the West Bank. However it is
encouraging that 70% didn’t believe violence helped to
resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Khaled Meshal,
senior Hamas leader in Damascus, said recently that Hamas
wanted a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders –
before the Six Day War. But he added that the group was only
prepared to offer a 10-year ceasefire to Israel. He was also
adamant that they would never recognise Israel’s right to
exist and criticised Fatah for appearing to do so.

Fatah leader
Mohamed Dahlan responded that Fatah had not recognised
Israel’s right to exist. He added: “We admit the PLO
recognized Israel's right to exist, but that does not
obligate us [Fatah] as a resistance movement.”

This is a real sticking point.
Hamas also holds that the Jewish people are seeking world
domination. They work through secret organisations and
control the media and the economy. They are responsible for
the French and Communist Revolutions, for World War I (to
destroy the Muslim Ottoman Empire). They even initiated the
Second World War to profit financially by it! This is, of
course, plain anti-Semitism such as found in the fictional
“Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

But whilst the Palestinians will
not recognise Israel and dehumanise Jewish people and the
Israelis simply waffle about a Palestinian state and
dehumanise Palestinian people, the hope of peace with
justice for both people groups is undermined.

PRAYER TOPICS

Pray for the Obama
administration, and especially Senator George Mitchell,
to be successful in obliging both Israel and the
Palestinians to move seriously beyond talks to a peace
settlement.

Pray that the Arab states
and the Quartet will successfully facilitate this.

Pray that the meetings
between Obama and Netanyahu, Abbas and the Egyptians
this month and Obama’s visit to the Middle East in June
will be successful.

Pray for the people of Gaza
facing devastation, bereavement, injury and
homelessness.

Pray that the IDF will clean
up its act, discouraging wrong attitudes and preventing
further wrong actions.

Pray for mutual recognition
and respect between Israel and the Palestinians.

Pray for frustration of
extremism in Hamas and in Israel.

Pray for success for the
Obama administration in reaching out to the Muslim
world, including Iran.